Hide glue

Whenever I talk about glue to clubs and classes, I hand around a bottle of liquid hide glue and ask them to tell me what its disadvantages are. “It’s weak.” Actually no, it produces a bond stronger than the wood itself. “It stinks.” Hide glue smells only as bad as a wet rawhide chew...

I use hide glue for almost everything in my shop (except as a party dip on a cracker), and have tried all modes of this versatile adhesive. But my usual go-to, work-a-day version of this wood glue doesn’t get much love out there on the Internet, and I am bewildered by this fact. Most...

Many beginners make gluing up panels a lot harder than it should be. They add biscuits or splines for alignment, which can also cause some mis-alignment if you aren’t careful with your machines or match planes. They also purchase or build curious jigs for keeping the panel joints aligned as they apply pressure. In...